Electronic data records in ERP systems often represent physical products/items that are ordered, manufactured, owned, serviced, or sold. The association between such electronic data records and external physical objects is managed, if at all, by domain specific business applications (e.g., asset management for managing physical assets, warehouse applications for receiving and moving goods). Such applications use technology (e.g., Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology) to tag and identify physical objects. But each application is tracking such associations within its limited scope. In business-to-business (B2B) scenarios such representations are even distributed across different companies and potentially non-integrated ERP systems. A coherent tracking of physical items in a B2B scenario is only possible if all business partners are connected to the same supply chain management solutions.
For example, a line item (e.g., iPod Video) in an electronic order may correspond to an iPod being manufactured and personalized with customer logo, shipped by one carrier, distributed by another carrier, and finally used by the customer. In this scenario, the manufacturer, and the two carriers potentially have different electronic representations in their ERP systems, which all can be associated with the same physical item, in this example the iPod Video. With the introduction of technologies such as RFID, such external items become traceable by ERP systems.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, that relies on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags. An RFID tag is an object that can be attached to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification using radio waves. Chip-based RFID tags contain silicon chips and antennas. Active RFID tags have a transmitter and a power source (e.g., a battery). The power source is used to run the microchip circuitry and send signals to an RFID reader. Passive RFID tags have no power source. Instead, they draw power from the reader, which sends out electromagnetic waves that induce a current in the tag's antenna. Active tags are useful for tracking high-value goods over longer ranges (e.g., over 100 ft. compared to 20 ft. or less), but they are often too expensive for use on low-cost items.
RFID systems are gaining in popularity and can be used almost anywhere, from clothing tags to car parts to electronics components to bulk product inventories, such as palettes, boxes and the like. However, current RFID systems are limited by their domain-specific solutions, which in turn limit integration of RFID information across and outside of business boundaries and domains. In other words, systems are generally customized to a particular company, or a particular environment of that company. Thus, information about products and objects having RFID tags is fragmented and difficult to synthesize due to the different RFID systems implemented, for example, at different points in a supply chain or product development chain.
With the establishment of RFID and related technologies (e.g., barcodes, etc.), the management of physical things outside of computer systems will be desirable. By supporting RFID tracking into ERP software applications, electronic systems start to track, manage, and recognize physical artifacts outside of the system. However, there is no general concept in place which treats an electronic data record and a physical artifact as two representations of the same business object. Transitions from system internal data representations (the order) to system external physical things (the manufactured good) are currently causing a disconnect unless custom applications are built to associate those external objects with the electronic data record. The scope of this tracking does usually not go across businesses.